NITI Aayog lists steps taken by J&K during pandemic in ‘Best Practice’

Lauds UT for setting up CCCs in every Panchayats
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Nov 27: The NITI Aayog has lauded J&K for its innovative approach during the COVID-19 pandemic and has listed several steps, measures taken by the UT Govt as ‘Best Practice’ stating the same have proved to be game-changers in the overall fight with the COVID, particularly in the rural areas.
In its latest report which deliberates on the best practices adopted by the states in dealing with the COVID-19, the NITI Aayog has also made a mention of the strategy that was put in place by the J&K to minimize the patient rush to the tertiary care hospitals by way of minimizing the referrals.
The report stated that the Government of Jammu and Kashmir adopted an innovative approach to manage and contain the pandemic as there were local district level triage centres to ensure proper patient examination and referral, reducing unnecessary burden on tertiary and referral hospitals.
“COVID-19 kits were given to patients and Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) was made available on round-the-clock helpline 104,” the report stated.
As per the report, J&K partnered with Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) and Health Information Service Provider (HISP) India to create a COVID-19 dashboard for the state.
“20,000 COVID-19 Care Center (CCC) beds were activated across the state close to rural areas in all the 20 districts with 1,000 beds each. Patients requiring isolation were identified by the Panchayats/ concerned Medical Staff and Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers,” the report highlights.
About the intervention details, the report stated that over 20,000 CCC beds were made available across J&K for COVID-19 positive patients with no or moderate symptoms and who did not have the necessary facilities in their homes for home isolation.
“Districts established local district level triage centres to ensure proper examination of patients and correct referral, reducing unnecessary burden on tertiary and referral hospitals,” it said.
Further, the report also lauded J&K for providing the COVID-19 kits containing an oximeter, basic medicines, vitamins, cough syrup, and pamphlets of dos and don’ts were to the COVID-19 positive patients in home isolation.
The report has also made a mention of J&K’s outreach measures which included consultation services over the IVRS and a round-the-clock helpline number 104.
The NITI highlighted that the COVID-19 dashboard provided real-time information about confirmed, active, recovered cases, deaths, positivity rate, recovery rate, fatality rate, test per million at a single glance, geo-tagging and clustering of cases, health system preparedness, ICU availability and isolation beds available to facilitate and generate an appropriate and timely response.
About the monitoring and medical support, the report has noted that over 300 Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) were tasked to carry out door-to-door visits to check on the health status of patients daily. “In addition to this, ASHA volunteers visited patients’ homes daily as part of surveillance measures.”
The report has also highlighted UT’s strategy of setting up 5-bedded COVID Care Centres in panchayats in rural areas which provided the facilities to the population in their villages.
“The government established a five-bedded CCC in every panchayat, with one oxygen supported bed (equipped with an oxygen concentrator) and other basic facilities in collaboration with the local Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs), Departments of Health & Medical Education, Social Welfare and Education,” it said.

Follow our WhatsApp channel